Geddes 2021
Our conference will bring our community together with academics, professionals, business leaders and local politicians to reimagine Sir Patrick Geddes remarkable 1904 plan for Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline.
On the 4th June between 09.00 and 13.00 we will revisit Geddes’s plan, ideas, common themes and challenges to take inspiration from his remarkable work. You can log on to the event on the 3rd June from 13.00 to checkout the programme, visit the Expo Booths and get to know the Hopin platform.
Having enjoyed our summer, and reflected on all we will have learned, we will come back together on 3rd of September to plan a new Greenspace strategy for our town.
Sir Patrick Geddes was a celebrated Scottish sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and biologist who gained global recognition as the ‘father of town planning’. In 1904, Geddes was engaged by the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust to develop a plan for Pittencrieff Park. He produced a radical plan that has not been realised….yet!
In a dynamic programme with keynote talks, panel discussions, practical workshops, exhibition booths and networking space we will take time to understand the remarkable ideas he put forward at the turn of the last century. We will see how his key themes can help us to understand the role of place and space for our future wellbeing.
As we chart a green recovery from the global pandemic, we have all been reminded of the importance of nature and greenspace to our health and wellbeing.
Both events will be enjoyable, fast paced, and interactive bringing everyone together with leading thinkers and writers on Sir Patrick Geddes.
More details to follow soon.
Keynote speakers
Michael Penman
Dr Michael Penman is a senior lecturer in History at the University of Stirling. His main research interests are Scottish medieval politics and piety c.1100-c.1560, and the commemoration and heritage of Scotland’s medieval past c.1750-c.1950.
His most recent publications include: Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots (Yale, 2014); ed. Bannockburn 1314-2014: Battle and Legacy (Shaun Tyas, 2016); ed. with F. Lachaud, Absentee Authority across Medieval Europe (Boydell, 2017) and with E. Utsi, In Search Of The Royal Mausoleum At The Benedictine Abbey Of Dunfermline Fife: Medieval Liturgy, Antiquarianism, and a Ground-Penetrating Radar Pilot Survey, 2016-19 (2020), available to download at https://dunfgpr.stir.ac.uk/ or https://canmore.org.uk/collection/2103329/details/
Paul Morsley
Paul Morsley is a landscape architect and urban designer with over 33 years of experience in the field of environmental design. A graduate of Heriot-Watt University / Edinburgh College of Art, Paul has worked with large and small design practices and as a sole trader before establishing his current design company, Iglu Studio Ltd, in 2013.
His extensive experience covers a wide range of scales from masterplanning to implementation on site and includes both domestic and overseas projects from the New Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, to Disneyland Paris, to a new city development at Woonbook Incheon Island, South Korea. He has worked across a variety of sectors including community and co-design, leisure and recreation, commercial and corporate, urban and civic, landscape and parks, and residential. Iglu are currently engaged on a range of masterplanning and design projects including The Leven project in Fife and Bathgate River Restoration in West Lothian.
Informing his practice work is his time in education, almost 20 years, including his continuing role as a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh / Edinburgh College of Art, and as a visiting Associate Professor at UBC University of British Columbia.
He is a chartered member of the Landscape Institute, a Recognised Practitioner of the Urban Design Group, and an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism where he is currently a member of the AoU’s Advisory Group in Scotland.
Katherine Irvine
Katherine is a senior researcher in conservation behaviour / environmental psychology focusing on people-environment relationships. She draws on an interdisciplinary background in molecular biology, natural resource management, conservation behaviour and environmental psychology to investigate the interface between people and their environmental settings (for example, natural, built, home, office) with an aim to develop bridges between issues of ecological quality, health/wellbeing and sustainability.
She joined the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences research group in April 2013 following eight years as a Senior Researcher with De Montfort University’s Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development. She collaborates internationally with colleagues from medicine, ecology, landscape architecture, engineering, industry and other social scientists.
Katherine served on the Economic and Social Research Council peer review college (2010-2015), is a contributor to the UK’s Valuing Nature Network and is a visiting research scholar at the University of Michigan with previous visiting appointments at University of Massachusetts and Johns Hopkins University. She was co-author on a highly cited interdisciplinary paper on biodiversity and wellbeing (Fuller, Irvine et al 2007) which was recommended by Faculty 1000 Review and has spawned a new area of research into the potential wellbeing benefits of biodiverse settings.